1. Field
The following description relates to a mobile device, and in particular, to a method for selecting target data from a plurality of data displayed on a touch screen of the mobile device.
2. Discussion of the Background
With the development of information communication technology, types of electronic devices have become diversified. Diversification of the types of electronic devices may be remarkable in mobile electronic devices, such as mobile devices, as well as in stationary electronic devices. For example, cellular phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, portable multimedia players (PMPs), navigation devices, portable game players, electronic dictionaries, e-book readers, and digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) receivers may have already been popularized. Of late, smart phones and tablet computers may be gaining popularity as new mobile devices.
Further, capabilities of mobile devices have become more diversified as well, the mobile devices becoming more technologically advanced and multifunctional. A representative mobile terminal with these characteristics may include a smart phone or a tablet computer. Smart phones and tablet computers may have evolved into integrated electronic devices equipped with various capabilities, including a calling capability, a data storing capability, a multimedia playback capability, a word processing capability, a gaming capability, a broadcast receiving capability, an Internet access capability, a camera capability, and the like.
In terms of hardware and software, various attempts have been made on mobile devices to the integration and advancement of these components, including attempts to implement various user interfaces as well as design changes. In particular, user interfaces of mobile devices may be evolving to become more user-centrically developed, which may further increase user convenience of mobile devices. As a result, users may execute various operations of mobile devices by one or two input actions using an intuitive graphic user interface (GUI).
A mobile device may be an electronic device to which mobility or a user's portability may be considered. Weight of a mobile device may be decreased due to lightness and sizes of various electronic parts integrated therein. Since portability may be a consideration in designing the mobile devices, there may be a limit to increasing the size of a mobile device. Therefore, a mobile device may be constrained to allocate a space for a user interface, such as a display or a keypad. In particular, there may be an inherent limitation in that a screen size of a touch screen, which may be used as an input/output interface in various mobile devices, cannot exceed the size of the mobile device.
Due to some advancement in capability of increasing storage capacity, the mobile device may store and process a large amount of data. Stored data may generally be arranged in a vertical or a horizontal direction or in the form of a matrix type list, and be displayed on a display. However, due to the limitation in the size of the display, there may be a limit to the amount of data that can be displayed on the display at once.
One method for managing a large amount of data using a small-sized display may suggest selecting data or dividing data into a plurality of groups in accordance with a reference standard. This method may arrange and classify data in a form of a hierarchical tree. Since the hierarchically arranged data may be listed on a group or subgroup basis and displayed on a screen display, the size of an individual data list may also be reduced.
As for an existing method for classifying a large amount of data in a group or a subgroup basis, a user may individually select each item displayed on a list, and the group or the subgroup to which the corresponding items may belong is displayed one by one. More specifically, first, if a list of data is displayed on a display, a user may select a single item to be selected or classified from the list displayed on the display. Then, a list of candidate groups or candidate subgroups to which the selected item may belong to may be displayed again. If the user selects one of the candidate lists displayed, the classification of the selected item may be achieved. Alternatively, the selected item may be shifted to a list different from the existing list and then displayed. In this manner, the classification of the selected item may be achieved.
However, it may be cumbersome for the user to select items from the list each time the user may choose to classify one or more items. In particular, in the case of the former, a category to which the corresponding item may belong to also may be selected to the inconvenience of the user. Further, if the amount of data to be classified is large, the user may review the entire amount of data and also individually select each item determined as suitable for conditions. Therefore, considerable time and effort may be used to classify or select data.